Fleas of genus Neotyphloceras associated with rodents from Bolivia: New host and distributional records, description of a new species and remarks on the morphology of Neotyphloceras rosenbergi

SANCHEZ, JULIANA P.; LARESCHI, MARCELA; SALAZAR BRAVO, JORGE; GARDNER, SCOTT

MEDICAL AND VETERINARY ENTOMOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2018

0269-283X

The flea genus NeotyphlocerasRothschild includes fivespecies and two subspecies distributedfrom Venezuela to southern Chile and Argentina. From Bolivia, only Neotyphloceras crassispina hemisus Jordanwas registered. Here we study species of Neotyphlocerascollectedin Bolivian localities from the departments of La Paz, Cochabamba, and Tarija. We describe the morphology of the modified abdominal segments for male andfemale of Neotyphloceras rosenbergiRothschild, on the basis of type material and specimens we collected from Tarija.We describe a newspecies, Neotyphloceras boliviensis n. sp., and report new host associations for N. rosenbergi, N. crassispinacrassispina and N.crassispina hemisus.Neotyphloceras c. crassispina and N. rosenbergi are reported for the firsttime for Bolivia. The distribution of N.rosenbergi is extended 1.600 km to the south. Regarding the potentialmedical and veterinary significance that fleas have as disease vectors, andconsidering that in the departments of La Paz and Tarija several human cases ofplague have been reported, and species of fleas have been identified as mainvectors of these diseases, the new records of fleas for Bolivia reported hereinmay be useful forepidemiological studies on flea-borne diseases.